Ex-convict Blamed For Fire At Hotel

An ex-convict from Tennessee who was ■ injured in a fire' which caused heavy I damage to a downtown hotel last Thurs■ day was charged this morning with setI ting that fire. Rohert Trotter, 38, of Nashville, apI peared before Fifteenth District Court I Judge George Alexander on a charge of I destruction of real property. Trotter ■ I manded examirration: on the felony count ■ and Judge Alexandersset that procedure I for Feb. 26, to fee held before Judge PietI er G. V. Thomassen. Judge Alexander remanded Trotter to the County Jail in [ liëu of a $20,000 bond. Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny said Trotter is specifically charged with setting a fire in a room on the seventh f lóor of the Ann Arbor Inn, 100. S. Fourth Ave., early on the morning of Féb. 13. The blaze was confined to a corner, room where it starled, but heat and. heavy smoke througnout the seventh floor sent guests scurrying down fire ladders and rushing down stairs to safety. An airline ) f f CS I pilot staying at the hotel escaped serious I injury when the bed sheets he was using I as a rope to lower himself out a window ' broke and he fell to a roof . , Damage to the seyenth floor was ex... pected to reach over $300,000, one f ire official said later. I Trotter was one of four persons taken to local hospitals for treatment of smoke inhalation at the time óf the fire. He had I been in the Intensive Care Section of I University Hospital, but recovered and I was discharged last Sunday. At that I time, Ann Arbor pólice picked him up I and placed him in the Washtenaw Gounty I Jail at the request of probation 1 ties in Tennessee. Officers in that state I said Trotter had served prison time for I arson and extortion and had violated his I probation. I Chief Krasny and Fire Chief Fred I ' Schmid sad evidence against Trotter I was gathered after an intensive 1 gation by City Pólice Detective Robert I LeVanseler and Deputy Fire Marshall Benjamin Zahn Jr. I